Free proxies: why they do more harm than good

Sometimes it seems that everyone is concerned about his or her privacy online. Various leaks and security scandals in media only add to this global craze. Trying to secure their privacy, users turn to various free proxyservices that are abundant today, as well as VPN (Virtual Network Network) services which are also free. But are they as useful as they want you to think?

If you just want to open some site blocked by your Internet service provider, then free proxies may do well for you. After all, you don’t require any decent privacy. But you should note the following. You whole Internet experience will considerably slow down, to start with. The popularity of free proxies has its price: they are used by too many people, while their resources are very limited. They are free, after all. As a result, your Internet speed will likely become inadequate. If you use some free VPN, your ISP may throttle your traffic at a time you least expect it.

Besides, you should keep in mind that government agencies are very well informed about such things as proxies and mobile VPN services, and if you think they like them, think again. Many countries do not want their citizens access certain sites, so they hunt proxies and VPNs to take them down. You may find the best proxy in the world only to find out that it stops working the next day.

Free proxies, anonymizers, and VPNs track their users by collecting IP logs, and you never know how much information they have on you and, most importantly, how it is used. They are free, so they don’t have any obligations to their users. They may sell your personal dara to spammers or, worse, hackers and other cyber criminals. Infecting your system with malware through badly-written software is not as impossible as you think. They may break pictures and/or video and feed you ads heavily.

Many free services are far from really anonymous. For example, Zenmate asks the user’s email upon registration. Certainly, this is no security at all. Many people who ask what is Zenmate may be very disappointed.

Alas, free and high-security, high-speed anonymizing services are compromised solutions by nature. The good news is that you don’t have to use them, since the alternative is very affordable. Those seeking a reliable and fast service like Whoer VPN will quickly see that they are really worth their money.